haunted, the forest // nct [3]

{16}

     "I swear I thought Doyoung was calling my name," Chanmi told the group after running for some time.

     Some had leaned against trees to catch their breath from the scare or continued to pace back and forth. Chanmi was the most shaken up from the recent event, seen as she was touching the gruesome being. She tried wiping off the blood from her hands, but they were still stained a light red.

     "'No one was screaming, Harry.'" Kun quoted. "Hermione Granger, The Prisoner of Azkaban. Movie adaptation."

     "Here we go again," Yuta muttered and rolled his eyes.

     "No more running off," Chunja declared. "No one is separating, we're all keeping an eye on each other."

"I'll protect you, WinWin," Taeil told the nervous boy who was shaking next to him.

"I think you're the one that needs protected," Yuta butted in with a scoff. "Don't worry, I'm here for you." Yuta placed his hand on WinWin's shoulder.

"We have bigger things to worry about than your egos." Kun glared at the two. "Like how are we going to get out of here without dying?"

     "Is anyone's phone working?" Chunja questioned. "We tried earlier, but it didn't work out."

     Yuta shook his head. "It won't even turn on."

"People have to be looking for us, right?" WinWin questioned. "Like, they have to be worried."

     Kun moved passed Taeil and Yuta to comfort WinWin. The boy was shaking under Kun's arm from fear.

     "I hope they aren't looking," Yuta muttered. "They sure as hell aren't going to make it out either."

     "We're going to make it out," Kun insisted. However, his stern expression changed when something let out a deep growl in the distance.

"We should keep going," Chunja whispered to everyone. Her head turned from side to side as she scanned the surrounding growth.

Jungwoo took her hand to pull her along with everyone as the group began to walk away from the noise. Yuta walked closer to WinWin, hoping to do the same move Jungwoo did. Though, WinWin moved away and walked beside Kun.

     "Not gonna happen," Taeil whispered with amusement.

     "Doesn't seem like you're get much of anything either," Yuta retorted, scrunching his nose in annoyance. Taeil nudged him away with his arm which only made Yuta even more frustrated.

     Kun huffed. "If the two of you starting fighting I swear—"

     The statement was cut off as Chunja screamed. Taeil and Yuta looked to see her horrified face staring at something moving closer to WinWin.

     "WinWin, run!" Yuta yelled.

     Kun began to pull WinWin away from the shadowy being with a sharp gasp while Yuta started to run in its direction.

     "Get away from us you dumb fuck nut!" Yuta fumed as he closed in on the cloaked person.

     A smile full of rotting teeth appeared from under the hood as its attention turned to Yuta. Yuta pulled back his fist, ready to fight it.

     Taeil tackled Yuta to stop him from getting closer, the both of them falling to the ground and rolling down a hill from the impact. Taeil and Yuta squeezed their eyes closed because of the leaves and sticks they were rolling over. The two of them came to a stop at the bottom of the hill where Taeil was hovering above Yuta. A stone cold expression surfaced on his face as he look down at Yuta.

     "Are you an idiot?" Taeil hissed. "You could've died!"

     Yuta's face was blank from the shock of Taeil's actions. He slowly inhaled deeply, realizing how dangerous his actions were and just how mad Taeil seemed to be. "Damn," Yuta breathed, "it seems like Strony is really worried about me."

     Taeil's cold expression melted away. "Strony?" he repeated, quite confused.

     Yuta shrugged, starting to smirk. "It just seemed right."

     A few feet away, the weeds and branches began to move quickly, as if a large gust of window picked up in that spot. Taeil hopped to his feet, extending a hand to Yuta. "Hurry," he said in a hushed yet urgent tone.

     Yuta took hold of Taeil's offered hand to stand. He winced from a cut on his knee, but tried to ignore the pain. His eyes looked up to see if their friends were still at the top of the hill, but there was no hill in sight.

X X X

Chunja screamed at the cloaked person nearing the group. Her hand slipped from Jungwoo's as she jumped in fear. Her body knocked into Chanmi's which caused the both of them to trip over the root of a tree.

     Her head came up after falling to find the cloaked person, but the figure and all their friends were gone. "No," Chanmi whispered before beginning to shout, "No! No no no!" She scrambled to her feet, scattering dead leaves around the forest floor.

     "Who's there?" a voice asked.

     Chanmi reached out to find her glasses that had been knocked off when tripping over the root. She slid them on, seeing a crack on one of the lenses.

     "Jaehyun?" Chunja questioned. "Who else is there?"

     Chanmi stood up next to Chunja as four familiar people approached them: Jaehyun, Gina, Haechan, and Doyoung. Chanmi tensed up at the sight of Doyoung as memories of her last encounter ran through her head.

     "Chanmi, is that really you?" Doyoung asked as he stepped closer.

     Chanmi stepped back out of fear. "The question is, is that really you?"

     "How do we know we can trust them?" Haechan moved in front of the three in his group.

"Same to you," Chunja added. "Someone tell me when you met me so I can know that you are my real friends."

Doyoung lightly pushed Haechan to the side so he could look at the two. "Chunja, we met when Johnny threw that small party our first year of college. Our first conversation was a debate over pizza rolls verses bagel bites."

Chunja sighed in relief. "And I won, by the way."

"Chanmi," Doyoung continued, ignoring Chunja's statement. "We knew about each other from our literature class, but didn't talk until the party. Our conversation was about your glasses." A faint smile hinted on his lips and something sparkled in his eyes.

     Chanmi slowly nodded. "They're real."

     "You have no idea what hell we've been through," Chunja breathed, stepping closer to the group.

     Haechan scoffed. "Same here."

     "Doyoung saw and heard some really weird things," Gina put in. "He heard screaming. Your screaming." She nodded her head in Chanmi's direction. "Then he saw a group cloaked people walking closer to him."

     "Hang on." Doyoung grabbed Chanmi's hand and examined it. "Is this blood stained on your hands? Are you okay?"

     Chanmi swallowed hard. "I'm fine. It's not my blood." She paused. "It's from one of the cloaked people. The blood got on my hands as it ran down its arm."

     "Why were you so close to one?" Doyoung asked, full of worry.

     "I..." Chanmi bit the inside of her cheek. "I thought it was you."